One More Tap » iTunes

iTunes 8.1 Released

xcool — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:38:57 +0000

As expected, Apple released a new version of iTunes, version 8.1 to coincide with yesterday’s new iPod shuffle release.

Apple claims the new version to be much faster and more responsive. Noticeable improvements should occur when – working with large libraries, browsing the iTunes Store, preparing to sync with an iPod/iPhone and optimizing photos for syncing. I hope Apple lives up to the claim – I am feeling the fat of the current version, especially in the Applications tab. I am hitting 300 apps soon and the experience is sluggish at best.

Besides the performance improvements, iTunes 8.1 also includes many other enhancements and bug fixes, some of which are listed below:

syncing with new iPod shuffle VoiceOver (3rd generation)
iTunes DJ (previously Party Shuffle) now allows friends to request songs
Genius sidebar ~~can now be enabled for Movies and TV Shows~~ seems to be pulled, according to this post over at The iPhone Blog
improved performance when downloading iTunes Plus tracks
new AutoFill feature for iPods that are manually managed
import tracks using the same quality settings as iTunes Plus
accessibility improvements
disable iTunes U and the iTunes Store separately using Parental Controls
security updates

Mac users should also find the accompanying Front Row update if you have a recently released Macintosh computer that can make use of the feature. Besides this, Apple’s Remote software for both the iPhone and iPod touch has also been updated to version 1.2 in order to improve compatibility with iTunes 8.1.

Head over to Apple’s web site to get the new iTunes 8.1 – Mac users can opt to use Software Update to download both iTunes 8.1 and Front Row 2.1.7. Once iTunes 8.1 is installed, head over to the iTunes Store to get the updated Remote application for your iPhone or iPod touch.

Happy iTunes DJ-ing!

iPod touch – Movies Playlist

xcool — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 01:28:00 +0000

Recently, I downloaded quite a number of iPhone Dev Center‘s “Getting Started” videos, to learn a thing or two about the SDK. As I began to add more videos to my iPod touch, I soon realised that they were basically rearranged in alphabetical order when I view them from within the Videos application. I wonder what Apple was thinking when they decided to do that. These videos are best watched in a certain order!

I tried a few methods to overcome this, including creating a playlist that contains the videos I want to watch in my preffered order. The iPod touch doesn’t seem to see this playlist. I found the solution after a couple of Google sessions.

The solution to having a movies playlist is to create a playlist that contains a mixture of both music and video tracks. iTunes will complain about it when you add a music track into a playlist full of videos, just dismiss the prompt. Remember to add the video track towards the start or end of the list. You wouldn’t want to be entertained by a music track half-way when you are watching those TV series, rite?

Next, simply add the playlist into your iPod touch, and access it from within the Music application. As usual, the Videos app will continue to see your videos in alphabetical order. By doing this, I get to also watch my videos in portrait form, or in any landscape orientation I choose, and each video will continue to play from where I left off.

Transferring your iTunes Library

xcool — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:00:07 +0000

I recently got a new laptop at work, and had to do a lot of transfer of old and existing data over to the new machine. My work place assigns everyone with a Windows (duh!) machine. My iTunes library happened to be one of the data bulk I’d need to transfer, comparable only to the Outlook data files I have.

I have all my iTunes music within the D drive, where My Documents folder resides. I’d always thought that my method of transferring the iTunes music folder would be the simplest and most cost efficient. I am partially right.

iLounge has just put up an article describing the same method I used. The very detailed articles goes on to describe how iTunes manage our media content and steps necessary if you are moving your music from one computer to another. If you are moving from Windows to Mac, the article has it covered. What impressed me most is the detailing of how to consolidate your media folder as well as using an external hard drive to support your growing library of music and videos.

Hit this link to read all about it. If you haven’t been managing your iTunes library, you better get started!

One More Tap » iTunes

iTunes 8.1 Released

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